The work will include activities such as assembling NASA?s planned heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and mating it with an Orion crew capsule inside the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Written by

James Dean
FLORIDA TODAY

NASA today awarded a contract worth up to $1.4 billion over nearly 10 years to manage the ground systems and facilities that will be needed to launch astronauts on exploration missions from Kennedy Space Center.

Jacobs Technology of Tullahoma, Tenn., won the Test and Operations Support Contract, or TOSC, which essentially replaces United Space Alliance's contract to operate the space shuttle fleet, which NASA retired from flight last year.

The contract is expected to employ about 1,000 people, far fewer than were needed for shuttle processing. ...